Easter Eggs (Season 1)
Note: This page contains spoilers for all episodes and other media that is referenced throughout the game. DONTNOD and Square Enix featured several Easter Eggs in Life is Strange. This article does not list all references to different media and artists, for a full overview, please see here. Breaking the Fourth Wall In the diner sequence of Max's nightmare in episode five, "Polarized", Max has to enter a code to exit the diner bathroom. If you enter the incorrect code 50 times, the door will open and Max will say, "I'm going to make the designers pay for all these bullshit code puzzles!" Cat Pics Throughout the game, on several occasions it's mentioned that someone lost his tablet with cat pics on it. It became a running gag since there are several funny hints to the owner's desperate attempts to get it back, and even the thief has their say. * At the beginning of the first episode, Max spots a paper calling for help in finding the missing tablet and advertising a finder's reward. It states that the tablet contains a lot of personal pics of the owner's late cats (RIP). It also says that everyone would know who and where the owner is. * At the entrance to the End of the World Party, you can hear Stella talking to someone explaining that she hasn't seen any tablet with cat pics. * In episode five, in the street leading to the diner, Max can find a note from the actual thief saying that he regrets what he did and that he only was jealous that the owner "had all those cool cats in his life". * In Max's nightmare in episode five, one of the lines written in her journal says "Find my cat pix. Please. My heart is broken." (To Be Continued) 2016-01-30_00022.jpg|Episode 5 Deja Vu In episode five, there are several instances where Jefferson shoots David if Max tries to warn David instead of pulling at the cable of the reflector umbrella left to her to distract Jefferson. Given the following warning options, David's Gun, Bottle, Table, Jefferson's Gun, David will get shot at least one time before the player will notice the Pull option. When Max warns David about the gun Jefferson is hiding in his cabinet, which is the fourth out of four warning options arrangement of the warning options in this scene, but Jefferson is again faster than David and manages to shoot him, he appears a bit puzzled and says, "Sorry, Madsen. Okay... Déjà vu..." Final Fantasy: Spirits Within In episode one, "Chrysalis", when Max is in Victoria's dorm room, she looks at her plasma tv and says, "That is a tasty plasma. Maybe I could sneak in and watch "Final Fantasy: Spirits Within." The film Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was rendered by Square Pictures, which is now a consolidated subsidiary of Square Enix, the publisher of Life is Strange. Hella Large With the Limited Edition Patch subtitle language, size and opacity became adjustable. The last subtitle size option after large is "Hella Large", referring to Chloe's slang. Hotdog Man Hotdog Man appears several times throughout the game. :Main article: Hot Dog Man Kate's Video Although there is an opportunity to view snippets of Kate's video within the game by sneaking a peek beside Juliet and Brooke in the hallway of the Girl's side of the Prescott Dormitory the morning of "Out of Time", it is unintelligible and cannot be watched. Any player who attempts to access the link to the site in real life is provided with the following official easter egg: 'http://katesvid.com/ '''is an actual link that leads to a blog with a single post and a video that was "removed" by Youtube, linking to the fact that Victoria took the video down after Kate's suicide attempt. License Plates The license plates around Arcadia Bay are all references to popular television series and films. Blackwell Parking Lot Licence_Plates-10.jpg|#1 "QNT MLP" - ''Quantum Leap (Red Car near entrance) Licence_Plates-11.jpg|#2 "BRDCHRCH" - Broadchurch (Gray Car) Licence_Plates-01.jpg|#3 "TWN PKS" - Twin Peaks (Chloe's Truck) Licence_Plates-08.jpg|#4 "B R K B D" - Breaking Bad (Frank's RV) Licence_Plates-09.jpg|#5 "SXFTNDR" - Six Feet Under (Nathan's Truck) Licence_Plates-06.jpg|#6 "THPRCTC" - The Practice (Blue Truck) Licence_Plates-05.jpg|#7 "PRK SN RC" - Parks and Recreation (Brown Car) Licence_Plates-04.jpg|#8 "TH WR" - The Wire (Red Car) Licence_Plates-12.jpg|#9 "CRNVL" - Carnivàle (Brown Truck) Licence_Plates-07.jpg|#10 "THSPRNS" - The Sopranos (Blue Car) Licence_Plates-03.jpg|#11 "TWLGHTZN" - The Twilight Zone (Red Truck #2) Licence_Plates-02.jpg|#12 "THXFLS" - The X-Files (Warren's Car) Licence_Plates-13.jpg|#13 "BFFVMPRSLR" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Gray Truck next to Warren's car) Two Whales Diner Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-02.jpg|#1 "NTHRRTH" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-03.jpg|#2 "DNNDRK" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-04.jpg|#3 "L P H N T" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-05.jpg|#4 "THFCLT" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-06.jpg|#5 "THKLLNG" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-07.jpg|#6 "GRNDHGD" - 2015-12-27_00053.jpg|#7 "RLSFTTRCTN" - 2015-12-27_00042.jpg|#8 "THFFC" - Life is... It's not allowed to say the game's title! There are several occasions throughout the game where a character begins their sentence with "Life is..." arousing the expectation of finishing it with "strange", but at the end it ends differently. * After altering the past by handing in her Everyday Heroes Contest photo to Jefferson in episode five, Max awakes in a San Francisco Art Gallery. Demonstrating how surreal this situation is for her, she says, "Life is... weird." * In Max's nightmare, Alternative Chloe appears and blames Max. Before she disappears, she says, "Life is... so not fair." Lorem Ipsum This text appears in the background of Max's Journal. It is commonly used for filler or "dummy text" in works of printing and typesetting. This dates back to the 1500s, and was made popular in the 1960's. It has roots in classical Latin literature. The standard passage used since the 1500s is thus: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." For a helpful video, check out this audio explanation in a video from Mari at Geek Remix.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-66fUzhPlI This website is also helpful for more backstory on the Lorem Ipsum.http://www.lipsum.com/ Memes Life is Strange references several popular memes. tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo1_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo2_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo3_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo5_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo6_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo7_1280.jpg Michel Koch Michel Koch, one of the directors behind Life is Strange himself, makes an appearance in "Polarized". Or is it a coincidence that a man exactly looking like him is sitting in the same plane as Max on her way to the Zeitgeist Gallery? He is also featured inside the gallery. Admiring three black and white pictures, he comments on them:'' '' "Bad exposure, bad framing, bad picture. I could have done this so much better." LifeIsStrange 2016-09-07 21-53-14-862.jpg LifeIsStrange 2016-09-07 19-30-20-223.jpg Reversed Reverse In the reversed Blackwell Academy sequence of Max's nightmare, you can hear and see things normally if Max uses her rewind in this scene. Samuel is the only character in this scene that doesn't speak backwards. If you walk up to him and stand next to him, you can hear his voice speaking forwards; things he already said during the game.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Vx1-AJZSk Rewinding is Getting Old If you go inside the Swimming Pool lockers in "Chaos Theory" and then rewind, Chloe says, "Dude, it's getting old! Try and dazzle me with another trick!" Rewind Sounds The sounds Max hears while rewinding are reversed future and past dialog pieces or other sounds that are part of the game such as train or shoot sounds.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsfrTcCumw8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3eQ_hg1waQ Self-Homage There are several references and nods towards DONTNOD's first game, Remember Me. * Chloe’s “cute robot panda keychain” is oblique reference to Jax the Panda. Jax the Panda Remember Me.jpg|Jax the Panda (Remember Me) Chloe Jax the Panda Keychain.png|Chloe's panda key chain *Brooke's drone has a similar shape and the same paintjob as the gunship Trace flies in Remember Me. *Max's "focus within a focus" on the selfie she took in class is a direct reference to Remember Me's "remixing the remix" segment. *The edges of walkways in the labyrinthine segments of Max's nightmare echo the edges of walkways in the Ego Rooms in Remember Me. Thanks for Crying At the end of the credits for "Dark Room", it says "thanks for crying" instead of "thanks for playing". Time Travel References Since time travel is a central theme in Life is Strange, there are several references to other films and series that popularized time travel. Butterfly Effect * (to be added; for now see here) Doctor Who * In a text between Warren Graham and Max, he says that he will be in the Tardis, the machine that the main protagonists in use to travel through time. * On the laundry ticket in Victoria's room the name of the employee is "Amelia Pond" (one the Doctor's companions). * In the barn during the fourth episode, Max spots an owl and calls it "Doctor Hoo." * On Kate's Get Well cards, among the signatures of students, there's the signature of River S. and Rory W. referencing Doctor Who characters. Donnie Darko * On Max's notepad in the classroom at the beginning of the game, you can see a small doodle of Frank the Rabbit from the film. Frank's first name is also believed to be a reference to the character. * In episode two, it is shown that Max has a copy of the film in her room. References Category:Life Is Strange Category:Behind The Scenes Category:Gameplay Category:Special Content